NASHVILLE — Legislation designating an 8.3-mile stretch of North Chickamauga Creek and a 1.5-mile section of Cain Creek as a Tennessee Class I Natural River Area won approval in key state House and Senate committees Wednesday and should soon be cleared for floor action in both chambers.
Hamilton County lawmakers introduced the legislation this year at the request of the North Chickamauga Creek Conservancy. The natural area lies mostly within Hamilton County and includes a portion of Sequatchie County that Gov. Bill Lee announced earlier this year would become a state park.
Granting it Class I Natural River Area status also provides it with additional protections.
“It meets all the requirements in the statute to be a Scenic River,” House Finance Chairwoman Patsy Hazlewood, R-Signal Mountain, told Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee members as she presented her measure, House Bill 150.
Hazlewood then sought to clarify what she described as “perhaps some misunderstanding” about what land is affected by the bill.